Potential enhancement of warm X-ray dose from a reflexing bremsstrahlung diode

The potential for generating intense bursts of warm x rays (20 to 60 keV) using electron reflexing diodes on pulsed-power accelerators is evaluated with the TIGER Monte Carlo code, showing that hundreds of kilojoules of warm x rays can be generated under idealized conditions, for a Jupiter (60-MA, 5-MV, 100-ns) class accelerator. The calculations are compared with data from Gamble-II experiments and applied to two suggested Jupiter diode configurations. If the simultaneous irradiation from the high-energy tail of the bremsstrahlung which accompanies the warm x rays is a concern, then the reflexing technique is shown to be limited to the irradiation of targets thinner than ~400 μm for low-Z targets like aluminum and thinner than ~5 μm for high-Z targets like gold